(AgapePress) - One U.S. congressman and more than one hundred of his colleagues are asking Columbia University president Lee Bollinger to fire the professor who called for a "million Mogadishus."

Arizona Congressman J.D. Hayworth recently sent a letter signed by 103 other members of the House of Representatives asking that Bollinger hold assistant anthropology professor Nicholas De Genova responsible for his virulent statements. De Genova told students at an anti-war "teach-in" in March that he wished "for a million Mogadishus," a reference to the Somalian city in which 18 American soldiers were killed in a fire fight in 1993. In his speech, he equated patriotism and support for U.S. troops with the perpetration of U.S. imperialism and racism, and said he hoped Iraq's army defeated U.S. troops. [See Earlier Article]

Bollinger said in a statement last week he does not plan to fire De Genova.

"I have a deep respect for the members of Congress and appreciate their concerns," Bollinger said in the statement. "I have already expressed my strong disagreement with Assistant Professor De Genova's statements. However, under the principle of academic freedom, it would be inappropriate to take disciplinary action."

The concept of placing De Genova's words under the protection of academic freedom is one Hayworth does not buy. He says when De Genova called for the deaths of 18 million Americans, he was not engaged in teaching anthropology or Latin American studies, the curricula he was hired to teach, but rather was spewing hate speech.

"I find it very curious that President Bollinger classifies this under the rubric of 'academic freedom' -- because I dare say if assistant professor De Genova had advocated a return to lynching or [had talked] about the value and the worth of lynching in today's society, I don't think De Genova would have a job today," Hayworth says.

The lawmaker also says he does not understand why "the left" believes it is convenient to hide behind the facade of academic freedom when there is nothing academically valuable and there is no one abridging freedom.

"President Bollinger has an interesting situation on his campus," Hayworth says. "Let's suppose, for example, that young William Pratt, whose father is a colonel stationed in the war theater, were to take umbrage [to De Genova's statements] the way the left often does about [such] comments. I think it would be interesting [if] young Mr. Pratt [decided to hire] an attorney and challenge Professor De Genova's speech under a hate speech statute. That's really what's going on here."

On April 8, his first day back in the classroom after the March 26 statements, students said De Genova apologized about any inconvenience they might have experienced in homework and studying, but refused to apologize for his statements, saying he would not be silenced.

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